Prestonpans Infant and Nursery School

 Storywriting

For storywriting this week we had to design an invitation to our Leaving Concert.  It had to have the date, the time and the place where the concert was going to be.

 

Then we were allowed to decorate our invitation with rainforest creatures and plants.  My mum thought her invitation was really nice and she and my dad are going to try and come to the concert.  Ellie

Visitor in School

In Tuesday we had a visit from our community policeman.       His name is PC McBeth.  He told us about being a policeman and also about how we could keep ourselves safe and  places we should not go on our own.  Then we were allowed to ask questions about   anything we wanted to know.  If we see PC McBeth out and about in Prestonpans we are  to say hello.  Amy

Final Project Page

For the last page in our project book we had to do an assessment sheet.  It asked us if we had enjoyed the rainforest topic and if we had managed to complete our topic book.  We also had to say what had helped us most with our personal research and which format we enjoyed doing. 

                                        

                                           

I was pleased with my topic book because I put a lot of effort into it and I really liked doing this topic.  Rainforest was my favourite topic in primary 3.  Emma

Our Leaving Concert of Rainforest Songs

We have been practising the songs for our Leaving Concert.  They are all about the rainforest and some of them are quite sad.  I am going to tell my mum to bring a hanky with her.  My favourite song is the spotty song and we are all getting quite nervous - teachers as well.  Emily

P3 End of Term Treat

Our end of term treat was a visit from Laura    of the Edinburgh Zoo Outreach Programme who was going to show us some of the kinds of creatures you would find in the rainforest.

The first creature Laura  showed us was a giant landsnail called Samson.  He had tentacles on the front of his head and a shell like you would find on the beach only much bigger.     When you held him your hands were left with snail slime on them but you just had to rub them together to get rid of it.  You would find giant snails on the florest floor of the rainforest but sometimes they climb up into the understory.  I held Samson and it felt a bit tickly.  Rachel

Our second creature was a toad called Tilly.     When I got to hold her her skin felt quite bumpy.  She was yellow and green colours for good camouflage and very hoppy.  Frogs in the rainforest are very bright colours and usually very poisonous.  I liked holding Tilly the toad the best.  Dillon

Maggie was a Madagascan hissing cockroach.  Her shell is made of the same stuff as your fingernails.  It was really tickly when she walked accross my hand.     Cockroaches are one of the fastest moving insects so we had to be very quiet and still so she did not get a fright and escape.  Laura told us that cockroaches are amazing in that if you put them in a freezer for six months when you defrosted them they would still be alive!  Coll 

     The spider’s name was Rosie and she is a Chilean tarantula.  We did not get to hold her because when tarantulas are in a bad mood they can flick their hairs at you to irritate your skin.  Sometimes they even might bite.  She had a pink spot on her back and eight eyes to go with her eight legs.  Spiders eat insects and would also live on the forest floor or in the understory of the rainforest.  Sam

My favourite creature was Monty the millipede.     His back felt a bit like rough plastic and he had approximately 240 legs.  Each segment of his body had two pairs of legs attached to it.  In the rainforest millipedes eat and clear up all the dead plants that are on the forest floor.  Leah

Our last creature was a Californian King snake called Callie.  She was really beautiful and Mrs Stewart would have liked to have kept her!     She was chocolate brown and lime in colour because she lives in the desert, not the sandy desert but the rocky desert.  When I felt her she was really smooth and warm to touch.   She kept putting her tongue out of her mouth so she could smell where she was as snakes have very bad eyesight.  I think I will stick to my rabbits even though Callie was very nice.  Rebecca 

The Concert

Our concert was yesterday.  It was fantastic.  There were lots and lots of parents and friends there.  Each class did a instrumental item first and then we sang the rainforest songs.   We noticed some mums and dads were having to wipe their eyes - we  think it was because we were so good!!!  Our favourite song was Bats and we have made a podcast of it.  Please be patient as it takes a little while before it starts.         bats1.mp3   After we had sung all the songs but one, we got our Leaving Certificate and a beautiful book from the school.  Last of all we sang Moving On as we left the hall.  P3/11

Goodbye and thank you

This is our very last blog as primary 3/11.  We would like to thank everyone, everywhere, for all their support - we reached the 10,000 hits mark at the beginning of June and our cluster map looks absolutely fantastic.  Maybe you can catch up with us in primary 4, or Mrs Stewart might start a blog with her new class after the summer holidays.  Happy holidays everyone from Primary 3/11 and Mrs Stewart.

Show and Tell  (from previous week)

        For my show and tell I brought in  my karate trophy.  I got it when I was four.   My big sister went to karate too.  Since we moved to Prestonpans we haven’t started back at karate again yet.  Jenny

I brought in my baby photograph album for my show and tell.       It has my favourite pictures on the front and I keep it on the shelf in my living room.   It has lots of pictures in it of me as a baby with everyone in my family.  Ellie

Storywriting

I was picked as a star writer last week.  We had to write about something we did at the weekend.  I was at my friends house where we had a game of football with our dads then we went to East Links Family Park.  My favourite thing there was the go-carts because there was a new go-cart and I got to go on it.  We chose nine star writers this week.  Christopher

Update on amaryllis growth

Our amaryllis is still growing but the leaves seem to be growing to the sides now.     We still do not have a flower stalk growing in the middle but we are keeping our fingers crossed it will start to grow before we break up for the holidays.  If the flowers is not out in time Mrs Stewart is going to take a picture of it and post it on the blog.  Amy

Painting the cow

We were chosen to go help paint the cow    because we were nearly finished our project books.  Tom was helping us and we painted two flowers, the tree trunk and the leaves.  It was good fun.  The cow was in the Gala on Saturday.  Rebecca and Coll

Project Pages

Our last two project pages were about people of the rainforest.  We had to skim and scan a fact sheet about rainforest people to fill in the missing words.     I found out that rainforest children have to do chores just like us.  The girls have to look after their little brothers and sisters as well as helping with the cooking, preparing the manioc and fetching water.  The boys learn how to hunt and fish with the men of the village.  Emily

   The second page told us how rainforest people live off the land by hunting, fishing and growing fruits and vegetables.  The main crop is manioc which is used to make flour for bread.  We found out that all the poison has to be squeezed out of the manioc before it is cooked but even this is not wasted and used  on the tips of arrows and spears.  Rainforest people share their food as they have no fridges to store leftover meat.  Rachel

Project Gallery

                                                                          

                                                                                               

School Sports

We had our school sports on Wednesday afternoon.  It was kind of cloudy but not too cold and it was dry!  Everyone was put into a team with someone from all the other classes so my team had primary 1’s, primary 2’s and primary 3’s in it.  I was the team captain and had to lead the team to each activity and give the adult there the clipboard so they could write down our score. 

 Lots of mums, dads, grannies and grandads had come to watch and they could get tea or juice with a biscuit from school.  Mrs Clapperton rang the old school bell when it was time to start and time to stop each activity.  There were twelve different activities to do and two circuits.  I liked the basketball best and my team got points for good behaviour at every activity.  Alex

Transition visits to Prestonpans Primary School

On Thursday and Friday all the primary 3’s went up to the primary school to visit and meet our new teachers.       We all walked up together with our teachers and Mr Lavery.     When we got there we  split up into our new classes and went with our new teacher into our classroom.   My new teacher was not there so my class had Ms Palmer.  I did see him on Tuesday night though when our mums and dad visited the school to meet our new teachers.

In the classrooms we got to do some maths and then we all had PE.          Our own teachers did not stay with us as they had meetings to go to.  Our PE teacher was called Mrs Sellwood and we were all out on the field.     After that we had our lunch and it was good.   In the afternoon we had a little more time in the classroom before we had to walk back down to school.  On the Friday morning we walked back up but our teachers left us and      we were dismissed from the primary school.     I really enjoyed my visit and I am looking forward to going to the primary school after the summer holidays.  Ellie

CLASS NEWS

I watched the football last night and it was 2:0 to Holland but I don’t know who they were playing.  I want Holland to win.  Ryan

It is my big cousin Jennifer’s birthday today and she will be ten years old.  We are going to visit after school and take her card and present.  My mum has made a cake.  Rachel

On the Gala day my gran came back from her holidays in Madrid.  She brought me back a lollipop whistle and my brother got a DVD.  Tristian

I was in the Gala on Saturday.  I went on the St Gabriel’s Youth Club float with my sister.  I was dressed up with rollers in my hair, a headscarf and a pinny.  Emma

I went to the Gala on Saturday.  I had my hair dyed red and I went on the Miami ride all by myself.  Liam

We were playing in the Gala football tournament.  We won it 2:0 against North Berwick and got a big trophy.  Dillon

I had lots of different colours in my hair for the Gala day.  I was on the quad bikes and after that I went to a champion league thing and you could win a football, football strip or a scarf.  I won a football.  Charlie

I was in the Gala paradewith my Brownies.  I was dressed up as Daisy Duck.  Amy

I have finished my topic book and it has 55 pages in it.  Emily 

We are delighted to report that the Summer Fair raised a staggering £1500.

This wouldn’t have been possible without homebaking; carbooters; donations of tombola prizes; helpers; babysitters - and of course the people who came along on the day.

In particular, the Parent Council wishes to thank the Ritchie family, Mr Ferguson and the Pentland Caledonia Pipe Band for their support.

We are deeply grateful to the following organisations for their generous contributions:

202 Hair Salon, Acorn Plastering, A&K Salon, Alchemy Group, Alex Paterson, Anchor, Bounce Foods, Brian Robertson Photography, Burtons Biscuits, Cockenzie Power Station, Cosybike, Duchy Originals, Edinburgh Tea & Coffee, Eve Magazine, Glenkinchie, Jamie Oliver, Japan Centre, Linda Sneddon Photography, Mattesons, Mercat Gait, Natural Spice, Ocean Spray, Penguin, Profile Books, Reiko Kaneko, Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, Saltire Driving, Shavers, Simply Washing, Somerfield, Stoats Porridge Bars, Tate & Lyle, Tefal, Think Pink & Uptown Magazine.

Storywriting

On Monday for our storywriting we had to make a list of things we would like to do for Sunshine Day.  We couldn’t do outside stuff though because the weather forecast was for a very rainy day. 

Once we had made our list we had to draw a picture of the six things we had chosen.  Top of my list was arts and craft and then listening to music.  Rachel

Exciting News

On Monday we went to the CNN website for some really exciting news and pictures.   An aeroplane flying over a part of the Amazon rainforest had discovered a tribe of people that no-one knew about.    There were photographs of long huts and in one of the pictures the tribesmen were trying to fire their bows and arrows at the aeroplane.  I thought this was very exciting because something new had just been discovered.  Alex 

Favourite Poems

We have been listening to poems about conservation from three different poetry books.      My favourite poem is Mummy, Oh Mummy    which is in the book What on Earth…….   It’s about a little boy asking his mummy what pollution is.   In the poem his mum is actually polluting the countryside but doesn’t know she is doing it.  Rebecca

     I like the poem the Monkey King by Richard Edwards from the Moon Frog book because it is funny.  The monkey king doesn’t want to be king because the monkeys keep disobeying him and tying knots in his tail.  Dillon

I think the best poem is Banana Slug also by Richard Edwards.     I like it because it is funny to think about someone in the jungle laying down their banana and picking up a banana slug and eating it.  Alex

I liked the poem I’m a Parrot in the Earthways poetry book.       I liked this poem because it showed how we shouldn’t take creatures away from where they live and keep them locked up.  The parrot turned bad and tried to peck people because he was so unhappy locked up in a cage.  This was a really sad poem.  Emily

Our Amaryllis 

This week we have a new plant in our classroom.  It is called an amaryllis.  It grows very quickly so we have put it beside the board and we are going to mark how much it grows each day.       We saw pictures of what it would look like on Google images.  We only started marking yesterday and already it has grown past the mark.   Mrs Stewart thinks it will be a red flower.  Lee                                                                                                                                           

Interactive whiteboard

We had two new maths activities on our whiteboard this week.  Both were on the Rainforest Maths site.  The first was all about position and there were four activities to do. 

                              

 There was a word activity, grids, paths and mapping which was really a primary 4 activity.  It was good fun putting the animals in the right position.  My favourite one was the paths.  Christopher

We also had a capacity activity where we had to estimate how many containers could be filled up by the liquid in a jug.   The bigger the container the smaller the number could be filled and the smaller the containers more of them could be filled.  Once we had typed in our estimate then we could click on the fill button to see if we were correct.  Tristian

Sunshine Day

My favourite thing on Sunshine day was getting to watch some of the video of The Witches by Roald Dahl.  We read the story as our class novel at Halloween but never had time to watch the video until now.  It was really scary.  Ellie

I liked the arts and crafts table on Sunsine Day.     I made a Father’s Day card for my Dad.  I used foil paper and and little sticky-on glittery pom-poms.  Sarah

Alan, Mrs Stewart’s son, brought his Wii in again for us and we were playing games on it.  First we played tennis, boys against girls and the boys won. 

                                                                                      

Then we played tenpin bowling and this time the girls won and lastly we did ski-jumping.   The ski-jumping was my favourite and I managed to land one time and my score was 23.  Leah

In the afternoon we listened to some music together.  We listened to Vanessa Mae, Red Hot Chilli Pipers, Peatbog Faeries and some opera.  My favourite was Vanessa Mae.  Kaitlin

My best thing on sunshine day was free drawing. 

                           

             

I drew a transformer picture and a sign for my room.  I really like drawing and draw a lot at home.  Lee

I was on an i-book with Liam.       We were drawing on Kidpix and then we did the pairs game on Thinking Things.  Courtney

Sunshine Day Gallery

We got to take pictures of our cards and drawings on sunshine day with the new camera. 

 

Mrs Stewart set it so that even if we wobbled the pictures would not be blurred. 

Sports Day

We were meant to have our Sports day on Wednesday but it was cancelled because it had rained all day on Tuesday and the grass would still have been too wet which would have made it slippy and dangerous.   We hope we will be able to have our sports next Wednesday - fingers crossed for good weather.  Charlie

Project Pages

This week we have been finding out about the emergent layer of the rainforest.   The tallest trees grow as high as 200 feet and stick out from the canopy like upside down umbrellas.   They have buttress roots to support them and protect against the high winds and small waxy leaves to hold water.  Emma 

Our second page about the emergent layer was to find two creatures that live there, draw their pictures and copy two facts about them.    I chose the harpy eagle and found out it was the worlds largest eagle and that they use the same nest every year.  My second creature was the gliding tree frog whose webbed hands and feet act like a parachute.    Emma chose a toucan and bees.  Coll

      Our other sheets this week were about rainforest foods.  First we had to colour in a sheet showing lots of foods that come from the rainforest and then we had to do a quiz using the picture to help us.  Amy

Project Show and Tell

I did my show and tell about the sloth      and told everyone that the three-toed sloth is the slowest mammal in the world.  Sloths are herbivores.  Emily

  The blue morpho butterfly was my show and tell and I found out that the bright colour is caused by the way the tiny scales on the wings reflect the light.  The blue colour is so dazzling that these butterflies can be seen from above by low flying aircraft.  Emma

I chose a chimpanzee for my show and tell talk.  I told everyone chimpanzees eat fruit and use twigs as tools to dig for food like ants or termites.  Christopher

   My project show and tell was about a spider monkey.  I found out that because of their body size as they are quite small they have little to fear from the eagles that hunt above the canopy.  They are called spider monkeys because of the agile way they move about in the trees using their long thin limbs.  Lee

  

Show and Tell

For my show and tell I brought my Topps Match Attax cards.       They show just English team footballers and come in packs of nine cards.  Sometimes you get a special shiny one in the pack.  My favourite one is Kasper Schmeichel    the goalkeeper for Manchester City Football club.  Tristian

CLASS NEWS

This Tuesday coming, me and Amy are going to start learning about getting our cooking badges at Brownies and we are going to bake some cakes and make a salad.  Rachel

My mum was in Ireland on Tuesday and Wednesday.  She was visiting relatives because it was their birthday.  Sam

My dad told me yesterday that Gretna is no longer a football team because no-one gave them money to keep going.  Christopher

It is my birthday today and I am eight years old.  I got a baby Annabel pram and a baby boy and a baby girl to go with it.  I am going out for a meal with my family for my birthday.   Sarah

I am getting a Nintendo Wii.  I am getting it tomorrow because it is my birthday.  Jonathan

I am getting a new Dalmation puppy tomorrow.  Lee

I am getting a Nintendo Wii at the end of the month because I am always bored and have nothing to do.  Leah

I am going to Wallyford Gala on Saturday with my Auntie Shirley.  Ellie

My brother is doing another gig - the same place as last time - and my family are all going to listen.  Amy

It will be my Auntie Julie’s birthday soon and she is coming to my house for a party.  Emily

My Auntie Linda was at a wedding when her baby started to come.  She had to go to the hospital and she had a baby girl.  Kelly

It will be my little sister’s birthday next Tuesday and she will be four years old.  Erin

Walk to School

 We have a chart on our classroom door for Walk to School Week.  Every day on Walk to School week we had to say if we had walked or if we came by bus or car.  I walk to school every day sometimes with my big sister.  Our best day for walking to school was the Tuesday when only two people in our class did not walk at least part of the way to school.  Kelly

Storywriting

For our storywriting this week we had to design a poster saying Save the Rainforests.  We had to make it eye-catching and outline the words in black.    Then we had to draw some pictures to illustrate our poster.  We also had to write a little about why we have to try and save the rainforests.    We have been learning songs about the rainforest with Mrs Birrell and in one it says if you cut down the trees “the land will turn to sand” as the heavy rain will wash away all the good soil.  

 

If the rainforests are destroyed the animals will have no-where to live and no food to eat and might become extinct.   We also need the trees to make us oxygen to breathe.  Other people said that there might be plants in the rainforest that no-one has found yet which could help make very important medicines.  Mrs Stewart told us that the rainforests also affect the weather all over the world.  Ellie

Interactive whiteboard

My maths group have been working with hundreds, tens and units this week and it was a bit tricky.  Mrs Stewart found us two programmes on the interactive whiteboard which helped us understand.  The first activity was the counting machine   which showed what happened when you added 10 or 100.     The second thing was a place value chart and you had to click on how many hundreds, tens and units made up the number.  If you got it right the man had a smiley face.  We are having to use the laptop to work the interactive whiteboard just now until the men can come to fix it.  Lee

The Iron Man

We finished our story The Iron Man on Monday.     The Iron Man beat the space bat angel dragon in a challenge to see who could stand the most heat.  The Iron Man had to lie on a bed of metal girders with petrol and oil burning underneath him but the space bat angel dragon had to fly up to the sun and lie on it.   When the Iron Man went to do it for a third time the space bat angel dragon started to cry and said the Iron Man had won.   My favourite bit was when the space bat angel dragon first landed on Australia with a big bump and everyone was really frightened.  Dillon

New Serial Story

Our next story is the sequel to the Iron Man called The Iron Woman.    So far the main character is Lucy and we have just got to the bit where she meets the Iron Woman and washes all the mud and grass from the marsh off her.  I think this story is going to be just as good as the Iron Man because we have just started it and already it has been very exciting.  Emily

Project Pages

Our page this week was to take some notes about a rainforest creature so that we could do a little talk about it to the rest of our class.    I chose an Argus pheasant and found out that to impress the females the male spreads out his wing feathers to make an enormous fan - a bit like a peacock.  Then he struts up and down the forest floor calling loudly.  Only three of us managed to do our talk this week as we have been really busy but more people will do it next week.  Amy

    I chose a very strange looking bird to find out about.  The hoatzin bird prefers to live and nest on the lower branches of trees overhanging water and eats leaves, flowers and sometimes small animals.  Rachel 

Project Gallery

Lots of pictures in our project gallery this week.  We hope you enjoy them.

                                 We took our own gallery pictures this week and some of us were a bit wobbly.  Courtney

Show and Tell

   For my show and tell I brought in a teddy.  It’s called Chloe and I keep it on my cupboard.  My friend Farzaneh bought it for me for my fourth birthday.  It is a black lab teddy and she got it at the Bear Factory.  Chanelle

Games Morning

When it’s Games morning we go into our groups and play board games.  We have seven groups and seven different activities we can do.  Sometimes mums, dads, or grandparents come into school to help.  My favourite game just now is Uno.  Sarah

CLASS NEWS

I am going to the Safari Park tomorrow with my mum, my little and big cousins and my friend.  We are going because it is my friend, Findlay’s birthday.  Ellie

My brother is in a band.  They were doing a gig last Sunday for the Edinburgh Marathon.  That was their first time and my family all went to listen.  Amy

 It is only have six sleeps until it will be my birthday.  I will be eight years old.  Sarah

I am going on holiday to Callander in the summer holidays.  We went last year and my mum really liked it.  We stayed in a tent.  Rachel

I am getting my karate suit tonight.  I go to karate every Friday evening at the Primary School.  Leah

On Wednesday my brother broke the record at the primary school for throwing the javelin.  We are having our school sports next Wednesday.  Chanelle

On Saturday I am having an event called Prestonpandimonium.  My dad and his friends are going to sell comics in Prestongrange House.  Anyone can come.  Emily